On March 5, Tempo reported on a proposal to return 400 acres of ancient tribal land in central Illinois to the Kickapoo Nation for the creation of what would have been the state’s only tribal-owned historic park.
But it appears that the Kickapoo Nation of Oklahoma has failed to meet a deadline for purchase of the property from owner Rick Kline, a farmer from Downstate LeRoy. This week Kline said the Kickapoo tribal leaders hadn’t contacted him during the 60 days he had given them for negotiations on the property. The period expired Monday.
Kline had planned to put a hog-feeding operation on 4 acres of the land. Neighbors opposed to Kline’s plan contacted tribal leaders and told them the land had been the site of the Grand Village of the Kickapoo, the tribe’s primary headquarters, from the late 1700s to about 1834.
Upon visiting the site, tribal leaders objected to a hog operation, noting that there are probably thousands of Indian graves there. Kline, whose family pioneered in the area, said he had no wish to disturb the graves. He then proposed swapping his property for a similar parcel to be purchased by the Kickapoo, and the tribe agreed to try to put together about $1 million to buy property in the area.
Frustrated with the tribe’s lack of response, Kline said this week that he has already begun building two large hog nurseries within 600 feet of his own farmhouse. He said he hasn’t decided whether to build a hog facility on the land where the Indian village stood.